Gilas battles China

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

A Gilas Pilipinas side that is definitely wanting in size gets its Fiba Asia Cup bid going, clashing with defending titlist China Wednesday at Mouhad Nawfai Stadium in Beirut, Lebanon.

With Andray Blatche refusing to go and June Mar Fajardo injured, the Filipinos are the definite underdogs in their 6:30 p.m. (Manila time) clash with the Chinese, who had taken just four players from their team that played in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Oympics but still loom as one of the teams to beat in the tournament.

Christian Standhardinger has taken over the place of Blatche on short notice, and there will be a lot that the
6-foot-8 Filipino-German would need to do in order to make Gilas competitive in the continental championship.

The Philippines finished second in the last two editions of the Fiba Asia, the first happening in 2013 in Manila and two years ago in Changsha, Hunan province in China.

Iran won the 2013 event, while the Chinese literally maximized homecourt edge two years later to beat the Filipinos in a close contest.

Coach Chot Reyes doesn’t want his players to be thinking about that for this game, but was quoted as saying by a TV5 report that “it’s human nature,” for players to recall what happened then.

“I’ve always believed that the best way to prepare for a game is to completely be in the present,” Reyes said in the report. “It’s the now that’s going to be important.”

The Filipinos hope to use speed to offset China’s edge in size, with Gilas having a fleet-footed backcourt led by Jayson Castro and Terrence Romeo.

Save for the absence of Blatche and Fajardo, the Philippines is being represented by possibly the best team it could cull, unlike the Chinese and Iran, who are saving their best players for the World Cup Qualifying starting in November.

Gilas and China are bracketed with Iraq and Qatar in Group B and to keep on playing, would need to win at least once in the first round.

Each group topnotcher will automatically make it to the quarterfinals, while Nos. 2 and 3 will advance to a qualifying round for the quarters.